Andrea Riseborough says Damian Lewis is great, but her new film is women's work

Andrea Riseborough is relishing the fact that her new film has been written, directed and produced by women — though working with Damian Lewis was an added bonus.

She said the team of first-time writer-director Corinna McFarlane, producer Nicky Bentham — whose previous work includes Moon — and a strongly female crew, all backed by James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli were “so much of wanting to do” The Silent Storm.

“I read the script and thought it was magical. And then I went to meet Corinna and she was so powerful and funny and unafraid to share her enthusiasm for her art,” she said.

Riseborough said she disliked the way some films were described as “female strong” because of good women’s roles whereas movies with lots of men were never called “male strong” as that was “just seen as a normal film”.

But the female team behind The Silent Storm had made the project special — though Lewis was also someone she had wanted to work with “for some time”.

The film is a love story set on a remote Scottish island in the Fifties when Aislin, a mysterious woman played by Riseborough, is found washed up on the shore, marries the minister (Lewis), but is then drawn to a teenage delinquent (Ross Anderson) they take in.

Riseborough, 32, said the six-week shoot on Mull was “epic”, with some extreme weather. McFarlane, 33, of Camden, said her film was inspired by what she found when family illness prompted her to explore their roots in Scotland. “I was blown away by the atmosphere created by the landscape,” she said.

She is thrilled that the film is being screened on October 14 at the BFI London Film Festival.

“I’m flying the flag for women, which is really massively important for me, and for London,” she said.

“I’m quite a ballsy character and a lot of that has been shaped by being born and raised in inner city London.”

Broccoli said: “The most exciting part of being a film producer is in the discovery of new talent.”